Monday, November 18, 2013

Transboundary Resource Partnerships, or the International Society of Cat Herding

Protests against the Xayaburi Dam, Laos. nationmultimedia.com

In early
November, I singlehandedly severed trade ties between two nation-states.The scenario was enacted to allow candidates
of Virginia Tech’s XMNR program to practice negotiating skills, and the topic
at hand was the construction of Laotian dams along the Mekong against the
wishes of its neighboring states.I went
into the weekend not fathoming how anyone could make a case for construction of
a dam, and had even begun drafting my arguments against its construction.However, I was assigned the role of a
representative of Laos meeting with regional neighbors, banks, NGOs and other
organizations who were concerned about Laotian actions to build two dams along
the Mekong River.The Mekong River
Commission (MRC) is composed of four nations- Lao PDR, Cambodia, Viet Nam and
Thailand and works to promote regional cooperation and economic development.China and Myanmar are not members but play a
role as stakeholders.To understand the
backstory, you should know that many dams are likely to be built along the
Mekong.The MRC conducted a study and
requested a moratorium on planning or construction of any dam by any nation for
a period of ten years.Laos has begun
construction of one dam and is in the design stage of a second.

For a
single day it became my job to defend construction of the second dam.Through my role as a member of the Laotian
government, I started to understand how easy it is to prioritize the desire of health
and wealth of one’s people (or oneself) over the environment.There is a tendency to focus on needs first,
and to focus on wants later.This
concept can be supported by Kuznet’s curve in which economic development increases at the detriment of the environment,
but as the economy stabilizes, environmental conditions are allowed to improve.
There is also a tendency in human nature
to assume that the worst possible outcome of a situation will not really happen
to us, even if the odds indicate that the worst thing is likely.

In the case of the Don Sahong Dam, it was
easy to argue that the environmental doomsday being presented by other parties
was unrealistically bleak.As a poor
nation with lower quality of life than most of its neighbors, it was easy to
see how Laos could feel no interest in halting plans to help itself out of
poverty through the sale of hydropower electricity. It was easy to discount concern for the environment
as an obscure concept that can pressure people into caring more about the
well-being of a fish (like the Irrawaddy Dolphin or Mekong Catfish) than themselves.

I found
that it was easy to stick to a position in a way that my own character would
not.Ultimately, my group of role-playing classmates reached no
deal.I believe we all maintained the
positions of our representative organizations, and we resisted the urge
to cave on behalf of players in a real world scenario.

There is no simple answer
to meet every party's desires. But I tend to believe that to garner voluntary compliance, you must offer a bigger carrot. The negotiator for a neighboring nation-state offered to assist Laos in development of a renewable energy system that would match the output of the planned dam. Had I been the true Minister of Energy for Lao PDR, that offer may have compelled me to agree to halting work on the dam. Economic strength and independence are the fruits of the dam that Laos is seeking, after all. It's a waste of air to ask a party to acquiesce in a win-lose situation even when stakes aren't so high as poverty alleviation and increased quality of life. The only chance is to provide a win-win situation for all stakeholders, where everyone walks away from the table with something they want.

3 comments:

Sally, this blog was enjoyable to read. It also helped me to better visual how the weekend played out which is helpful because as you know I missed class. It is clear that the exercise helped students to appreciate the difficulty of reaching agreements for these types of intractible problems. I strongly believe that these difficult conversations and negotiations much be ongoing with new data and research to continually better understand the complicated political, social and environmental relationships involved.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the struggle of representing a player you don't believe is in the right. I think it's pretty interesting how you showed what stepping into another's shoes feels like. I was a representative for the fish and the environment in a similar role play and definitely pushed the warning of a doomsday scenario. I think things in my room would have really changed if "Kuznet's curved" was brought into the picture. That's a very compelling argument for Laos in my opinion.

I totally related to your struggle. I found it really frustrating to play a part that was so radically different that my usual role at a negotiation table. I am usually representing a principle party but in this case I was the consultant at the table to support my client by providing technical information. I had to be much less assertive and in control of the direction of the talks than I would usually be. I cant say I liked it but I did get a new appreciation of what it feels like to be in that supporting role. I think it will make me a better negotiator going forward. Dolores